Life in the Kingdom

This is the sermon manuscript from the sermon preached on the weekend of November 19/20^th, Christ the King Sunday, 2011. The Gospel text is Matthew 25:31-46.

Have you ever noticed that Jesus has a lot of celebrations? We celebrate his birth on Christmas, his Resurrection on Easter, his baptism in January, and today, his kingship. Today we celebrate Christ the King Sunday, the last festival day of the church year. Today is the day when we crown Jesus Christ as our king.

You would think that on the day that we celebrate his kingship the story would be all about Jesus, telling us about what he does as our king. But it’s not. The story is actually all about us. And it’s not a pretty picture. It’s a story of judgment, the great judgment story in Matthew’s Gospel where Jesus Christ the king will judge us. Jesus gathers the nations around the throne and separates the sheep from the goats. He sends the sheep to the kingdom prepared by God; he sends the goats to eternal punishment. It’s a harsh judgment to deal with. But not so fast, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, there’s a word missing.

It’s a Greek word, a small word. It’s the word de that is translated as “but” in the English. Now the word “but” is a conjunction, it’s a word that signifies a shift and a change, something is now different. This de is found in verse 31, at the beginning of the judgment scene, it sits right at the hinge between the parable of the talents and the final judgment scene in Matthew’s Gospel. It’s a shame that we do not read the two passages together. One interprets the other. In the Greek original text, there were no verse numbers or chapter numbers, the words even run together, so the two stories would have to be read together; meant to be read together.

Last week we explored the parable of the talents and one of the issues with that parable is how the master doesn’t sound much like God. Remember what the master tells the third servant, “For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” That just doesn’t sound like God to me. That doesn’t fit with the wild generosity of God’s grace that I know to be true. It sounds more like our world; those with all the stuff get more stuff, while those without stuff continue to slip further from the master, further from the positions of power and popularity, perhaps even cast into the outer darkness because they are not good enough. It’s not a hopeful picture.

And this is where that little Greek word comes in, that little de which is left out of verse 31. This de is important because it shows the contrast between the way of the master, the way of this world, and the way of Jesus. Verse 31 should actually begin, “But when the Son of Humanity comes in his glory...” When our king arrives, when Jesus Christ comes into our world, this is how it’s going to be. The hungry will be fed, the thirsty watered, the naked clothed, the sick and imprisoned visited, the stranger welcomed. An active life of love takes over in the kingdom of heaven.

No longer is the judgment scene in Matthew a picture of judgment, it’s a picture of hope. It’s a picture of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus Christ the king will move around his subjects, making sure that everyone is fed, and watered, and clothed, and in community with one another. The kingdom of heaven is people helping people, strangers reaching out to strangers. The kingdom of heaven is people recognizing the humanness of each other, recognizing the child of God in each other.

I saw on the news this week that there is a woman in Knoxville Tennessee that has taken it upon herself to transform the neighborhood around her. She got tired of passing the abandoned, depressing, foreclosed homes in her neighborhood. Houses with empty eyes, no lights on, no one home. This woman borrowed $50,000 and bought one of those foreclosed houses and moved in. Over the next few months she went to work, putting the house back together. She redid the bathroom and kitchen and brought new life into the home. “I had no experience, I just saw the potential,” she said, “I thought I could do it.” With the help of gracious neighbors she continues to buy and rent homes in her neighborhood. They put their hands and hearts to work fixing up the broken houses. Their hard word continues to bring homes back to life. She rents out the repaired homes to others, providing them with a place to stay. A place to call home. She makes enough money from the rent she collects to pay off the mortgages and then donates thousands more to charities. The kingdom of heaven breaks into our world through the labor of love of this woman. And Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, just as you have done to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you have done to me.”

The Kingdom of Heaven breaks into our world everyday through ordinary people like you and me. Everything and everyone can be an encounter with God, if we are open to possibility that Jesus Christ is at work in our world now. That his kingdom has come and his will is being done in our lives and on the streets we call home. The kingdom is here when we reach out to others, when we recognize our shared humanity with strangers, when we see the child of God in everyone we meet. Be they the least of these, or the greatest of these, the kingdom of heaven breaks into our world when we act out of love for one another.

I have seen the kingdom of heaven break into our world over and over again the past couple of weeks while in the monotonous rhythms of the elliptical at the YMCA. One of the physical trainers who works at the gym, who is there every time I walk in the door it seems, is helping to bring the kingdom of heaven into our world. He works with a fair number of what I would call normal gym people, not the superstar athletes we see on TV, but folks like me who are just looking to get into better shape and perhaps drop a few pounds. But he also works with those who I would not normally consider as part of the gym crowd. The man in the wheel chair who needs help getting onto the weight machines. The older man on his walker who needs a boast onto the stationary bike. The woman who can barley use her arms who just needs a little help getting the fitness machine going. The veteran whose battle wounds left him scarred for life who needs help on and off the bus because of his wheel chair. This personal trainer treats these people with the utmost respect and care. He treats them like they are human beings. He treats them like they are children of God. I see the kingdom of heaven in him because he reaches out and gives a helping hand. “Just as you have done to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you have done to me.” That’s what the kingship of Jesus looks like in the flesh and blood of humanity. That’s the kingship we celebrate today.

Today is Christ the King Sunday. Today we celebrate the shepherd king who looks to edges, to the margins, to the least of these and claims us all as his family. Have you seen him; our king, Jesus the Christ? He’s here and his kingdom is alive and well in this world. The kingdom of Jesus Christ, the kingdom of heaven is here with us now. In flesh and blood. In you and me. In what we do every day of our life.

To declare Jesus as our king is to declare that Jesus has a claim on our life. His baptism is our baptism, his death is our death, his resurrection is our resurrection, and his kingdom is our kingdom. We are stewards of Jesus Christ the king and our stewardship in this world is everything we do after we say I believe. If we say “I believe in Jesus Christ” then how we live our lives will be different. How we use our resources will be different. The way we talk and interact with other will be different. People will see the kingdom of heaven breaking into our world through the lives we live and the way we walk through this world.

Today we have the chance recommit ourselves to the kingdom of God. As we look forward to 2012 we have the chance to stand up and claim Jesus as our king by the way we choose to live. Through our financial giving, the use of our time, our talents, the gifts that God has given us, we can participate in the kingdom of heaven breaking into our world now.

Until the Master's Return

This is the manuscript of the sermon preached on the weekend of November 12/13^th. The Gospel text is Matthew 25:14-30.

If you were to hang out around the vicar condo this time of year, or perhaps overhear a bit of chatter between Katie and I, you may hear a common question, “Well, when are you going to be back?” Katie travels a great deal for her job, visiting universities and their marketing programs, and this time of year finds the schools she works with inching ever closer to the end of the semester. It’s high time to get the final projects done before it’s too late. She’ll tell me that she has to fly to Texas, or Chicago, or Philadelphia, and the first words out of my mouth are, “When are you going to be back?”

It’s an honest question for planning purposes. It’s a way for me to begin thinking about what I am going to do while she is gone. After all, I have to take care of the tasks she normally does around the house while she is away. The care of the apartment is solely in my hands, the work has been entrusted to me, I am the steward of our stuff. It’s a familiar feeling.

Why just this week…Vicar Travis, while Pastor Bobbie is out of town, will you keep an eye on things around the church? And when I was a kid…Travis, we’re going out for the evening, will you watch your brother until we get back? Are you familiar with these kinds of questions? Will you watch our dog while we’re on a cruise? Will you watch over my stuff while I am away? Will you check in on my house while I’m out of town? “Well sure, but when are you going to be back?”

In every Gospel we have a witness of the struggle of the disciples to wrap their heads around the idea that Jesus was somehow leaving them. Three times in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus tells his disciples that he is to be killed by the hands of the scribes and Pharisees. Now death is a final exit from this world, but Jesus promises that he will be raised from the dead. But even with this promise the disciples continue to question why he had to leave in the first place. When the question of why was not answered, the next step was to ask, “Jesus, when will you be back?”

“Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Well now, Jesus says, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: all this is but the beginning of the birth pangs (24:7-8).” “Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left (24:40-41) .” There will be ten bridesmaids, but only five will be wise enough to bring extra oil and the other five will get locked out when the bridegroom comes. “Keep awake therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour (25:13).” Now that’s a bit more complicated than saying 10:35 pm (Eastern Time) on December 27^th 2034. Why can’t you be more specific Jesus?

It’s this wonder over the return of Jesus that leads to the parable of the talents. “For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and entrusted his property to them…”

But when will you be back? That’s the first place my mind goes. How will I know when you have returned? It’s an honest question. But it misses the point. Regardless of how long the trip will be there are still things to be done in the master’s absence. The grass has to be cut, the vases dusted and perhaps some new carpet put in the house thank you very much. The parable does not end with the master’s leaving; the story has only just begun.

After all, the slaves have been entrusted with the master’s stuff. They are called to steward the master’s property. There is no command from the master, but why not use the property and take a shot at adding to it. That’s what good servants do, that’s what good stewards do, that’s the heart of this parable as I remember it from my Sunday School days. Use the talents we’ve been given, use the gifts God has blessed us with. The talents in the parable are actually a metaphor for our faith. God the master gives us faith and we are called to grow in that faith. The third slave is too scared to use his faith so he is cast away from the master. We don’t want to be like him, we want to use the faith we have been given. But recently I am not so convinced.

That’s what happens when you grow up I think, the simple stories are the first to go. The stars are no longer holes to heaven; the talents are no longer just a metaphor. The more I study and dig into the text, the more startling the discoveries become. Jesus is talking about money here, and a lot of it. A talent is 6000 denarii, 6000 days worth of labor, 15 years worth of income. This is a story about economics and in Jesus time, the kind of rapid growth talked about in this parable was unheard of. There were no unlimited resources then, for someone to get ahead, it was always at the expense of others. So for the first two servants to double the talents they were given, a lot of folks had to turn out their pockets. The third slave is thrust into a new light. No longer is he a lazy bum who is too scared to use his master’s wealth. He’s the one who stands up to a broken system. This third slave is actually the hero of all of those who are continually pushed to the side so that those who already have stuff can have more stuff. His words about the master, “You reap where you did not sow, gathering where you did not scatter,” are the picture of a tyrant who makes a profit by taking resources out of other’s pockets. This third slave has made a choice not to follow in the master’s footsteps. He’s no fool; he knew quite well where his actions might lead.

And the master, well he does not sound like God at all, “For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” This sounds like our world, the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. This does not sound like the same God, who as the vineyard owner in the parable of the vineyard workers, pays all the workers the same wage regardless of the hours they worked. This does not sound like the wild generosity of God’s grace. This does not sound like the God I know, the God who loves you and me.

Either way you look at this parable, whether it’s the two servants doubling the talents to the praise of the master or the third servant standing up to a broken system of gaining wealth, the question is no longer “Master, when are you coming back?” but “What are we going to do while the master’s gone?” That’s the question of a steward. And since Jesus has not yet come back, this is our question as we walk through this world.

The witness of Jesus Christ in the world is left to us until the day Jesus returns. Do you believe that? God the almighty has left the stewardship of the world in the hands of we who, in moments of great pressure or stress, can’t even tie our own shoes. Do you believe that? I do. I do because we are created in the image of God who is the great giver of all things. We are created to be givers ourselves. We have the opportunity to be the life sustaining, nurturing, loving people who share the resources of God with all God’s children.

Though God is still very much a part of our world, we have been left in charge, we are the stewards of the vineyard that is creation and all this is in it. We do not own the vineyard, we do not own the resources, but we have the opportunity to direct how the vineyard is taken care of. We can decide how the workers get paid. We get to make sure that everyone has enough. We get to steward the resources while the master is away. Do you believe that?!

Because it all belongs to God. Everything we have. All that is in the world. Every bit of creation still belongs to God. And God gives us everything we need. We, who are created in the image of God, we who are created to be givers ourselves, are told to be fruitful and multiply. We are put in charge of the resources, taught how to give out of our abundance so that others may have life. We have the opportunity to use what God has given us to make sure that all of God’s children have enough. So what are we going to do until the master returns?